HIHawaii State Symbols

The symbol most people recognise first is the flag, because Hawaii is the only state that flies the British Union Jack in the corner of its own banner. It sits there because Kamehameha I kept a British ensign given to him in the 1790s and wanted a flag that would not offend either British or American ships calling at his harbours. Almost every other Hawaiian symbol follows the same logic, honouring something that exists nowhere else: a goose that walks on lava, a hibiscus found only in the islands, and a coral that grows in water hundreds of feet deep.

Official state symbols

What is on the Hawaii state flag

Eight horizontal stripes run across the flag, one for each of the main islands: Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Niʻihau and Kahoʻolawe. The stripes repeat in a fixed order of white, red and blue from the top. In the upper hoist corner sits the Union Jack, a nod to the alliance between Kamehameha I and British captains who supplied and advised the kingdom. Early versions of the flag carried seven or nine stripes before the count settled at eight in the 1840s.

Ka Hae Hawaiʻi is the only state flag that once flew over an independent kingdom. It stayed in place through the monarchy, the 1893 overthrow, the Republic of Hawaii, the territorial years and statehood in 1959, which makes it one of the oldest continuously used designs in the country. Hawaiians call the red, white and blue arrangement a deliberate diplomatic compromise, readable to both the British and the Americans whose ships filled Honolulu harbour.

The state seal and the phoenix

The Great Seal of the State of Hawaii was adopted in 1959 and adapted from the 1896 seal of the Republic of Hawaii. Kamehameha I stands on one side in a feathered cloak and helmet, arm outstretched. The goddess of Liberty holding the Hawaiian flag stands on the other. Between them is a heraldic shield carrying the stripes of the flag and the puloʻuloʻu, the tabu ball and stick that once marked places under a chief's protection.

Below the shield a phoenix rises from flames, surrounded by taro leaves, banana foliage and maidenhair fern. The bird was meant to mark the change from monarchy to republic, rebirth rather than rupture. The words "State of Hawaii" arc across the top and the date 1959 sits at the bottom, with the motto Kamehameha III spoke in 1843, when British Admiral Richard Thomas restored Hawaiian sovereignty after a five month occupation.

Symbols that surprise people

• Two official sports. Surfing is the state individual sport and outrigger canoe paddling is the state team sport, both designated in 1998.
• The state fish lost its job. The humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa was named in 1985 under a law that expired after five years. Hawaii went without an official fish until the legislature made the designation permanent in 2006.
• The state gem is not a stone. Black coral, adopted in 1987, is a living colonial organism harvested by divers from deep water off Maui and Lānaʻi.
• The nēnē nearly vanished. Named state bird in 1957, the population had fallen to roughly 30 birds in the 1950s. Captive breeding brought it back to the slopes of Mauna Kea and Haleakalā.
• The state song was a national anthem. Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī was written by King Kalākaua with music by royal bandmaster Henri Berger and served as the anthem of the Kingdom of Hawaii before statehood.

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